Monday's Market Minute: Watching Covid-19 Through Economic Data

The focus this week is on how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted consumers; retail sales, housing data, Jerome Powell and weekly jobless figures will be the focal points for many. While the week starts off somewhat light in terms of economic data, Tuesday will provide insight into how U.S. consumers' spending habits have changed.

Things will begin to heat up as Fed Chair Jerome Powell testifies in his semi-annual testimony to Congress Tuesday and Wednesday – most likely echoing earlier comments, but always essential to keep an eye on. In addition to the closely-watched weekly jobless claims, we have central bank activity: two G-7 central banks will meet to decide interest rate policy and roughly half a dozen emerging markets’ central banks will provide further insight as to global economic conditions. Keep an eye on the Bank of England: while Jerome Powell has indicated his reluctance to take rates negative, there seems to be some willingness to do so in the U.K. We close out the week with expiration Friday – Quad Witching.

In addition to economic data, keep an eye on headline news related to coronavirus numbers as states open and lockdowns get lifted. It will be important to determine if that is lending itself to a re-emergence of the virus, and if so, how that’s handled. In terms of markets, the U.S. Dollar weakness continues to play out and the sharp move lower we saw in U.S. indices into the end of last week seems to have slowed some Friday, but it will be key to see if we can hold last week’s lows – in the Dow futures, I have my eye on the 25k level as being somewhat pivotal.

Stay tuned to the TD Ameritrade Network to cover all the breaking news and market reaction to the information you crave about the markets you trade!

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